Duty Free Agreement on IT products

Posted on: 16/12/2015

WTO MEMBERS CONCLUDE LANDMARK $1.3 TRILLION IT TRADE DEAL WTO members representing major exporters of information technology products agreed today (16 December 2015) at the WTO’s Tenth Ministerial Conference, in Nairobi, on the timetable for implementing a landmark deal to eliminate tariffs on 201 IT products valued at over $1.3 trillion per year. The deal extends the 1996 Information Technology Agreement (ITA) to cover €1.3 trillion in global trade. This makes it the biggest tariff-cutting deal in the World Trade Organization in almost two decades. The parties shall apply three year staging in four equal annual reductions of customs duties, beginning in 2016 and concluding in 2019, as standard staging, unless otherwise agreed by the parties, recognizing that extended staging of reductions may be necessary in limited circumstances

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